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Man Of The Match Performance From Moeen Sees England HomeSaturday, March 3rd, 2018

Moeen Ali was chosen as man of the match as England overcame New Zealand by four runs in Wellington to take a 2-1 lead in the best of five ODI Series today.

The Worcestershire all-rounder again highlighted his value to the team by making a quickfire 23 as England totalled 234 all out after being put into bat.

He then caused havoc with the ball in the Black Caps middle order as they subsided from 80-1 to 103-6 and were eventually restricted to 230-8 despite an unbeaten century from Kane Williamson.

Moeen – who signed a new five year contract at Blackfinch New Road during the winter – finished with figures of 10-1-36-3.

He came into the attack at 80-1 and his first ball was struck for six over mid wicket by Williamson who had received good support from Worcestershire T20 Blast 2014 and 2015 player, Colin Munro (49).

But Moeen quickly settled down and struck twice in two balls in his second over.

Mark Chapman (8) holed out to England skipper Eoin Morgan at point and then the next delivery trapped Tom Latham lbw for nought on review with replays showing the ball would have gone onto hit leg stump.

Moeen made another breakthrough when Colin de Grandhomme (3) found the hands of Chris Woakes at long on.

Another former Worcestershire T20 Blast player in Mitchell Santner – 2016 and 2017 – helped Williamson add 96 for the seventh wicket before he was dismissed for 41.

But England held on to get over the finishing line to leave Williamson unbeaten on 112 from 143 balls with two sixes and seven fours.

Morgan (48) and Ben Stokes (39) had been England’s two main run-getters.

Moeen said: “It was a difficult wicket and a good one for spinners. My plan was to bowl tight and the wickets came.

“They weren’t great balls or anything. I wanted to build pressure and hopefully get wickets because of it. That’s my plan in ODIs as an off-spinner.”